Pothole Review aims to strengthen case for road maintenance investment

The Potholes Review ordered by local transport minister Norman Baker has reported on the progress it is making to reduce the problem affecting road users’ journeys. Lee Baker looks at the direction the review is going in ahead of its final report in the spring

It is an issue of importance to road safety and one that affects journey times and modal choice. But, despite this, there is little understanding of the benefits of investing in road maintenance, and the costs of under-investment.

The Government’s Potholes Review is placing a renewed focus on highways maintenance, which highway engineers have referred to as a ‘Cinderella service’ that has not received the necessary attention, even before public spending restraint.

An interim report from the review provides high-level support to road users’ concerns over potholes, acknowledging there has been “deterioration of a fragile network”. This follows the Asphalt Industry Alliance’s campaigning for greater recognition of a problem it says has dramatically worsened over the last two years: it claims the number of potholes in England and Wales reaching more than one million for the first time in 2010, and nearly two million in 2011.

The AIA says defects lead to journey delays and diversions and worsening road safety. The CTC, meanwhile, says carriageway defects can discourage people from cycling and it knows of two cases where potholes contributed to the death of cyclists.

However, despite lending support to the importance of the issue, the interim report of the review ordered by minister for local transport Norman Baker is uncomfortable reading for highways engineers.

The review starts from the assumption that additional funding “may not be a practical outcome”. It supports developing a methodology for developing a benefit:cost ratio for maintenance schemes to better justify investment (see box). However, this additional investment would not be from Whitehall so it would be down to local authorities to identify additional funding themselves.

Baker, when he announced the review, said that he wanted to “help hard-pressed authorities” (LTT 8 Apr 11). In line with this, the review aims to produce best practice guidance on improving operational delivery and on maintenance techniques and materials.

The interim report mainly focuses on how the efforts of local authorities to arrest the decline of their highway networks fall short, and not other, wider causes of deterioration – with the exception of reinstatements. It states: “Potholes occur due to a variety of reasons and it would be unreasonable to expect that their occurrence could be prevented in all cases. The review, however, considers how the problem may be reduced by dealing with potholes more effectively and efficiently.”

Matthew Lugg, leading the review for the DfT, told LTT that the topic of causation is broad. While the severe winter weather was a factor, “if wear and tear had been better managed, fewer potholes would have appeared”. He said the type and volume of traffic is outside the scope of the review, except insofar as it will point local highways authorities to the need to give greater consideration to the use of roads when determining their maintenance priorities.

“Often, maintenance regimes do not take into account the use of roads but are based on the road classification hierarchy. Authorities should prioritise the maintenance of roads based on function and use. Some C roads have almost as much traffic as A roads, and on some minor road routes there may be lots of cyclists at risk from potholes.” 

This recommendation is supported by the CTC, which believes that the needs of cyclists are generally not reflected in the priorities of maintenance departments. Chris Peck, CTC policy co-ordinator, said: “We are participating in the review and were encouraged that the needs of cyclists have been acknowledged.

“We’ve made the point that the danger and inconvenience to cyclists from potholes is much greater than for other road users but there’s not enough acknowledgement of cyclists’ needs.”

A spokesman for the local government Technical Advisors Group, meanwhile, says: “How do we know that the SCANNER machines we use to measure condition pick up the problems that customers perceive?”

The review will respond to such concerns, Lugg confirms.“We do need to be more considerate of road users’ experience of the problem.” So the review will consider developing a framework for how local authorities can actively work with stakeholder groups so they can help to determine maintenance priorities.

Need for public to inform priorities

Paul Watters, head of public affairs at the AA, says: “There is a need for public complaints to better inform maintenance regimes. Too often, potholes that the public complains and complains about are left untreated.”

The review, however, will also complement subjective views of the problem with more objective data. It will consider a “more appropriate means of measuring road condition” – one that allows authorities to decide the relative priority principal and non-principal roads receive – and a new national definition of a pothole (LTT 16 Dec 11).

The TAG spokesman says better data is necessary. “We simply do not have the data on the size of the problem, or its causes. Highway inspectors could identify whether a defect that they find is down to roads being left too long without maintenance, or down to an extraordinary impact such as inappropriate road use, severe weather or a faulty reinstatement.”

Lugg says: “We need data that better reflects perceptions. From the technical perspective provided by SCANNER inspections, there’s been some decline, but it’s not massive. There’s a mismatch there.”

The review contends that national indicators on road condition under the last Government “may have encouraged local highway authorities to adopt a ‘worst first’ strategy, only treating roads when they reach poor condition. This has contributed to an increase in potholes”.

However, as well as encouraging highway authorities to be more responsive to road users’ priorities, the review advocates the more widespread use of an asset management approach.

The Highways Maintenance Efficiency Programme is producing guidance to ensure wide adoption of the approach. This would entail making budgets go further by treating roads before they deteriorate. The dilemma, however, is that such a strategy would potentially mean prioritising different roads to the ones identified by the public as needing attention, as Northamptonshire County Council has acknowledged.

Local transport minister Norman Baker will provide an update on the Pothole Review at the Future of Highways Delivery conference 2012.
The full conference programme for the 21st March event is now available.